Conifer’s robotics team, Team Blitz, has been working hard to complete their objective before the 2021 BEST robotics competition on November 6th. With a handful of new members, the team is already making lots of progress. New ideas are being spread and everyone is hard at work figuring out how to tackle the tasks at hand. 

“I think a challenge will be turning ideas into physical things and having them work,” freshman, Cecilia Rinkleff, said.

In years past, there hasn’t been a very large senior class in the team. Luckily, this year brings hope for a different outcome in the future. 

“We have a lot of freshmen joining us this year, so that creates a foundation for a strong senior class in four years,” Mentor, Jason Kaza, said.  “We tend to lose some students year over year, so the stronger the freshmen class we can start with, the brighter the prospects are for the future.”

The team is excited to be back in person this semester. After a long year and a half of Covid, life within the team can finally return to normal. 

“I think the hardest thing about last year was that we were trying to get a lot of people who, including me, couldn’t come in due to COVID-related reasons. It was really difficult to build because you can’t really build a robot online,” junior, Rhys Hanson, said.

This semester, Team Blitz is working towards the end goal of creating a robot that will perform the tasks needed. The robot needs to have various mechanisms, a solid design, and some programming before it’s ready to compete. After a few weeks of planning, prototypes are being made. With the help of experienced mentors, the team is learning new things every day.

“I want the students to get a better understanding of engineering principles and experience designing and building electromechanical objects,” Kaza said. 

Students are free to join the robotics team at any point in the year. It’s an opportunity to make new friends, develop new passions, and have a great time.

“My favorite thing about robotics is it gives me an opportunity to be with like-minded people,” Hanson said. “These are people who I don’t really get to interact with as much during the day, but when we come here in the afternoon we all have this common goal and we’re all united over this, and this is something we really share a passion for. It’s really allowed me to develop meaningful and lifelong relationships.”